You are on page 1of 59

DEDICATION

To my dear parents and grandparents,


To our sisters, brothers-in-low and their children,
To my brothers,
To my uncles and aunts,
To all those who are dear to me.
For their kindness and devotion, and for their endless love and support.

A special gratitude for all my close relations who supported me after I was mugged
before two weeks of my presentation.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

First and foremost, we express our sincere thanks and deepest appreciation to Mr. Jalel
Akaichi, for his supervision, support and encouragement during the course of this project.
We would like to express our gratitude to Mrs. Linda Mhadhbi our co-supervisor for
her valuable guidance and the piece of advice she gave us during this project.
We would like to thank all the jury members for giving us the honor to evaluate this
humble work.

Abstract
Drones are remotely controlled devices also called Unmanned Aerial Vehicles. They
contributed to facilitate the human life by their numerous applications and missions. Their
main advantage is the absence of human on board. Drones are used in many domains
especially in emergency management. At this point of time, there is a widespread deployment
of the ambulance drone because it is equipped with a time telemetry, sensor support data, and
GPS navigation in order to reduce emergency response time. Every year, too many people die
waiting for an organ transplant, blood transportation or cardiac problems like a sudden cardiac
arrest. The hereinafter conducted researches aim to enhance the emergency management
system using a remotely piloted aircraft. In the light of these facts, the purpose of this project
is first to propose a generic model of emergency drones. We propose an Algorithm followed
by a mobile application aiming to facilitate from one hand the management of the emergency
center and from the other hand to pursue the urgency related to the cardiac problems after
detecting the emergency caller location through the Google Maps.

Keywords: drone, emergency management, cardiac problems, blood transportation, organ


transportation, geolocation.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter I............................................................................................................................................1
General Introduction....................................................................................................................1
1.

Context.......................................................................................................................................1

2.

Motivations.................................................................................................................................2

3.

Contributions..............................................................................................................................3

4.

Project Outline............................................................................................................................5

Chapter II...........................................................................................................................................6
State of The Art................................................................................................................................6
1.

Introduction................................................................................................................................6

2.

Domains of use of drones...........................................................................................................6


2.1.Military missions of drones......................................................................................................7
2.2.Civilian missions of drones......................................................................................................8
2.3.Emergency missions of drones................................................................................................11

3.

Advantages of drones...............................................................................................................12

4.

Disadvantages of drones...........................................................................................................13

5.

Emerging of mobile applications for health care......................................................................13

6.

Conclusion................................................................................................................................14

Chapter III..........................................................................................................................................15
Modeling Diagrams............................................................................................................................15
1.

Use case diagram......................................................................................................................15


1.1. Global use case diagram........................................................................................................15
1.2. Refined use case diagram......................................................................................................16

2.

Transition State Diagram..........................................................................................................21

3.

Activity Diagram......................................................................................................................22

4.

Class Diagram..........................................................................................................................22

5.

Sequence Diagram....................................................................................................................23

6.

Deployment Diagram...............................................................................................................24

7.

Conclusion................................................................................................................................25

Chapter IV.......................................................................................................................................26
Implementation............................................................................................................................26
1.

Introduction..............................................................................................................................26

2.

EMD_Algorithm.......................................................................................................................27

3.

Application architecture............................................................................................................28

4.

Realization................................................................................................................................28
4.1. EMD Rescuer Part.................................................................................................................28
4.2. EMD Center part...................................................................................................................31

5.

Conclusion................................................................................................................................48

Chapter V.........................................................................................................................................49
Conclusion and future works...................................................................................................49
Bibliography.........................................................................................................................................1

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1 : Ambulance Drone................................................................................................................12


Figure 2 : Global Use Case Diagram....................................................................................................16
Figure 3: Refinement of the use case "Manage drones".......................................................................17
Figure 4: Refinement of the use case "Pilot Drone".............................................................................18
Figure 5: Refinement of the use case "Treat Emergency Request".......................................................19
Figure 6: Refinement of the use case "Manage Inventory"...................................................................20
Figure 7: Refinement of the use case "Benefit from the Emergency Service"......................................21
Figure 8 : Transition State Diagram (cardiac arrest).............................................................................22
Figure 9 : Activity Diagram..................................................................................................................22
Figure 10: Class Diagram.....................................................................................................................23
Figure 11: Sequence Diagram...............................................................................................................24
Figure 12: Deployment Diagram..........................................................................................................25
Figure 13: Application architecture......................................................................................................28
Figure 14: Send cardiac drone request..................................................................................................29
Figure 15: Connecting to the server......................................................................................................30
Figure 16: Sent Location......................................................................................................................31
Figure 17 : Anthentication 1.................................................................................................................32
Figure 18 : Authentication 2.................................................................................................................33
Figure 19 : Authentication 3.................................................................................................................34
Figure 20 : Pending emergency requests..............................................................................................35
Figure 21: Notification of a pending Emergency Request....................................................................36
Figure 22: Pending request...................................................................................................................37
Figure 23 : The nearest drone...............................................................................................................38
Figure 24 : Drone management............................................................................................................39
Figure 25 : Add drone...........................................................................................................................40
Figure 26 : Drone added.......................................................................................................................41
Figure 27 : Drone list............................................................................................................................42
Figure 28 : Drone details......................................................................................................................43
Figure 29 : Medical Stock Management...............................................................................................44
Figure 30: Add Product........................................................................................................................45
Figure 31: Product Added.....................................................................................................................46
Figure 32: Product List.........................................................................................................................47
Figure 33: Product Details....................................................................................................................48

Table

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: Textual description of the use case "Manage Drone"..............................................................17


Table 2: Textual description of the use case Pilot Drone...................................................................18
Table 3: Textual Description of the use case "Treat Emergency Request"............................................19
Table 4: Textual Description of the use case "Manage Inventory"........................................................20
Table 5: Textual Description of the use case "Benefit From The Emergency Service".........................21

Emeny HEDHLY
.

Chapter I
General Introduction

TheTThe drone is a remote-controlled aircraft, that is without a pilot on board which is

programmed for autonomous flight. It uses either aerodynamic forces or an autonomous


system of aerial refueling. Add to that it embarks a payload which allows it to realize diverse
and varied missions. Drones facilitate the human life by their numerous applications. Their
main advantage is the absence of human on board; thats by providing a good platform to
replace him and to ensure his security and his ability with visual images, allowing him to
understand the actual situation. With advances in technology development, the functions of
drone are widely used for different purposes in recent years. These have included surveying
the development of city infrastructure, researching agriculture, fishery and farming,
monitoring environmental protection, highway driving, forestry management, and disaster
prevention like floods or debris flow.

1. Context
Nowadays use of drones has been rapidly developed especially during the last decade.
Considering the numerous advantages for their users, the use of drones seems irreversible and
the real challenge today is not to delegitimize their use but to regulate it and to divert it
towards other domains. The objectives of the civil drones are diverse and their uses are easily
justifiable. Many researchers are interested by the use of drones in the domain of emergency
management because the factor of time is very important in these cases, and sometimes it
seems difficult to access to the area of interest.
1

Emergency Management
Drones

Emeny HEDHLY
.

Among the huge number of emergency cases we will focus on cardiac problems, blood
and organ transportation. Which are critical and they can bring to the death easily. Indeed the
survival rate for patients especially with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest is low in communities
where emergency service is provided solely by emergency medical technicians. Also
thousands of people die each year waiting for an organ or a specific type of blood that did not
arrive in time. In addition with an ever increasing demand on blood supplies, there is an
immense need to ensure a rapid, safe and sufficient supply of blood products.

2. Motivations
While drones have been used extensively by the military and small model aircraft have
been around for more than fifty years, advances in more complex vehicle controls and
imaging sensor capabilities are spurring public sector and commercial interest in unmanned
aircraft for a variety of purposes, including law enforcement, homeland security, aerial
imaging, and scientific research. Many researchers are getting interested to provide the best
means for saving human lives all over the world especially in medical emergency cases. There
is probably nothing more dramatic than sudden cardiac arrest, lack of blood or an organ
failure.
Indeed, receiving faster treatment can make a difference when it comes to sudden
cardiac arrest. In fact we need a rapid and comprehensive post cardiac arrest treatment system
of care because we cannot wait to transport patient to an appropriate hospital. It is the same
with other cardiac problems.
Add to that, this approach has focused on human organ replacement because of the
increasing shortage and long waiting times for organs. Although the experience of organ
donation was initially limited to kidney transplantation of portions of liver and lung, the
transplantation of portions of the small intestine and the distal segment of the pancreas have
also been performed. The proposal of using drones to this purpose is being pursued in an
effort to remedy this unfortunate situation even when the patient and the donor are separated
by a long distance.
Furthermore, if someone is having a critical accident, being on blood thinner has the
potential to drastically affect the life saving measures. First responders to the scene of an
2

Emergency Management
Drones

Emeny HEDHLY
.
accident would need to know immediately that he is on blood thinner so they can administer
life-saving drugs to counteract internal or external bleeding; and they attempt a treatment. In
most of cases the rescue team needs a rapid supply of blood which is not always available.
Besides people who have HIV/AIDS may develop anemia due to infections or medicines used
to treat their diseases. This means that a transfusion must be done if the body can't make
blood properly because of an illness. Blood transfusions also are done to replace blood lost
during surgery or due to a serious injury. All these alarming facts insure us to emphasize the
way that blood and organs are transported between facilities. We should highlight the number
of potential lives a drone could save in these cases.
Add to that a remote conversation through an integrated webcam allows facilitating
the emergency management. Not to forget that failure to rescue refers either to a delay in
delivery or help.
Mobile pervasive technologies can support a wide range of applications and services
including mobile telemedicine and patient monitoring facilitating then the emergency
response and management by providing great benefits to both patients and medical personnel.
Concerning our work and relating to the pre-conceived system of drones, developing a
mobile application to manage emergency operations is a worthwhile way to gain time in order
to save humans lives. In fact this application can boost employees productivity and
availability. Through a Smartphone the emergency team can be available to cover emergency
calls anytime and anywhere they are. In fact the connection made between their Smart phones
is the best way to facilitate their coordination and cooperation to accomplish their noble
mission.

3. Contributions
The need to enhance a rapid emergency management is becoming primordial. In fact, a
good health rescue system is mainly based on a good emergency management. Therefore, one
of the most important features nowadays is strengthening emergency systems in order to save
human lives all over the world. In fact the aforementioned problems can be solved using
drones. We can exploit their high speed to rescue patients by delivering either blood or organs.
That can also help patients with out of hospital cardiac problems by importing necessary
medical resources (equipment, staff).

Emergency Management
Drones

Emeny HEDHLY
.
We propose in this work a medical assistance generic system of drones which aims to
improve the rapidity of emergency management. Indeed drones can be activated by a
Smartphone application to automatically take to the skies and drop a defibrillator to a patient
accompanied by people on the ground or to fulfill the requirement either of blood, organs or
other medical resources. The way it works is equitably simple. Indeed anyone with a
Smartphone will be able to download a free application and instantly request the Drone in an
emergency. The drone: is charged by the requested material, it has an internal system such as
GPS to know the precise location, an Ipad which allows communication with the drone as we
may consult the drone states and everything which can happen. Moreover there is a cooling
system which is necessary in blood and organs transportation. By this way and thanks to this
alternative effective medical supplies transportation mode we can reduce many shocking
figures. In fact their high speeds allow us gaining a lot of time and then increasing the number
of potential lives. In this work we tend to extend the civilian use of drones so as to take into
consideration the emergency management by supplying patients either blood or medical
organs or by rescuing patients in order to act early to prevent a cardiac problem to save their
lives. The goal of the emergency management by a Drone is to provide an effective, optimal
and timely healthcare to patient whenever and wherever they need it to support their rescue.
Hence, in light of these facts and in order to facilitate the emergency management for
a cardiac arrest, blood and organs supply we propose a drone system, that allows rescuing
people who suffer from an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, people who need a blood or people
who are in need for an organ transplant.
All the above mentioned reasons seduce us to realize an outfit of objectives. Indeed
among the objectives of our project entitled "The use of Drones in Emergency Management
is the development of a mobile application using Android technology enabling the emergency
team to accomplish their mission in which the factor of time is very important. The
application mainly consists in four parts relating to the emergency applicant and to the three
members of the emergency team; Firstly, the emergency applicant will be allowed to send a
drone request, then the system will detect its location (address: longitude and latitude) ; at this
stage there are firstly a checking of the availability of the appropriate drone, equipment,
product and staff if it is needed. Secondly, the emergency agent will be able to send to manage
each emergency case; indeed, after he receive a patient request he send a notification to the
other members of the emergency team. Thirdly, the doctor is charged by managing the stock
(the stock of medical equipment, blood and organs which are received from donators or
4

Emergency Management
Drones

Emeny HEDHLY
.
bought). Finally the pilot will be able through the application to pilot drones and to manage
their availability.

4. Project Outline
The work will be organized as follows: In chapter 1, we will present the previous
works pointing drones' missions in various domains, and then we will specify with researches
on emergency management drones. After that, we will focus on the emerging of mobile
communication technologies in health care field. In chapter 2, we will describe the proposed
generic system of emergency management drones and we will depict in detail the architecture
of our system to show its main functionalities. In chapter 3, we will present the running phase
which apart from the proposed algorithm, it contains a mobile application allowing managing
emergency operations and finally we will conclude and outline the future directions of our
work.

Emergency Management
Drones

Emeny HEDHLY
.
State of the art

Chapter II
State of The Art

1. Introduction
Increasingly, it is becoming clear that the use of drones, which have become popular
since the early 1800s, does not fully meet the requirements of human life. In this chapter we
will present the first basic domains within which drones were processed. Then we will focus
on the existing approaches which highlight the usability of Drones in a variety of missions
especially in the emergency field by a survey on the previous works done on emergency
management. After that, we will focus on the emerging of mobile communication
technologies in health care eld.

2. Domains of use of drones


The current explosion of drones can overtake their common use to meet the everyday
life requirements. Apart from their military use in the last years, Drones have become relevant
for applications in civilian circumstances like remote sensing, mapping, traffic monitoring,
farming and infrastructure maintenance, like road maintenance and dam surveillance. We will
focus in this section on both civilian and military exploitation of drones.
Every domain has its own missions. Drones are used for a variety of missions. Not
only they perform intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions, although this still
remains their predominant type. But also their roles have expanded to areas including
emergency management and combat.
According to (Ilaria Dalmasso, 2012 ), drones are used in 3D missions:

dull (surveillance and reconnaissance missions of long duration)

dangerous (risky missions over hostile areas)

Emergency Management
Drones

Emeny HEDHLY
.

dirty missions (over contaminated areas).

Drones can be classified according to their type of mission as tactical or according to


their altitude and endurance, as MALE (medium altitude long endurance) or HALE (high
altitude long endurance). Moreover, there are other sub-criteria to classify drones based on the
type of propulsion system (e.g. piston engine, turboprop or turbojet); adding to that the
number of engines and the type of lift system (e.g. fixed wing or rotor). In what follows we
will focus on the type of mission in every domain.

2.1.Military missions of drones


The Drones technology originates from military applications; actually having access to
an aerial view over large areas is helpful in many applications. In fact the use of drones for
various military missions in the air, in the sea, in space, and on the ground has received
growing attention in the last decade. Apart from the main advantage of not placing human life
in harms way, the lack of on board human operator enables longer endurance especially in
military use.
While much of the policy debate surrounding civilian use of unmanned aircraft is new,
the military has used autonomous drones since the 1950s (Elias, 2012 ). These vehicles first
served as targets for training combat pilots and as decoys in combat arenas, but their roles
evolved with advances in sensor technology, allowing them to take on many missions; we
give as example advanced aerial reconnaissance roles and aerial surveillance missions over a
war zone. It is the same for law enforcement situations where we have a big need for
complete and consistent information to specify the adequate targets.
These are some of the missions that can be used in this domain:
o Tracking target
Tracking implies maintaining continuous knowledge of the targets position. Guidance
performance is strongly coupled to the ability of the sensors to determine the targets position.
Thus, there are many ongoing efforts to determine optimal methods to track a moving target
with multiple autonomous drones (Rysdyk, 2006). Otherwise tracking associates radar
observations of the same target into tracks. Under the human supervision and without his
participation these missions can be done efficiently using drones whichcan substantially
7

Emergency Management
Drones

Emeny HEDHLY
.
improve tracking when targets interact. Moreover tracking tasks could be cooperated by many
drones such it is depicted in the following picture.
o Combat
Drones have become one of the most critical tools on the battlefield, providing troops
with eyes in the sky and a weapons platform that can fly around the clock over hotspots 1 and
fire missiles without endangering a pilot. The drones can linger over an area with their video
cameras gathering intelligence for as long as 20 hours 2, and then strike without warning. As
the flights increase, the military is also finding that the drones can offer continuous protection
and broad view of their surroundings.
o Border Surveillance
Seen that border security has long been admitted as a priority for the government all
over the world drones are proposed to improve it. One potential benefit of Drones is that they
could fill a gap in current border surveillance. Drones also can provide precise and real-time
imagery to a ground control operator, who would then disseminate that information so that
informed decisions regarding the deployment of border patrol agents can be made quickly.
(Bolkcom, 2004).

2.2.Civilian missions of drones


All the recognized advantages of drones for the military applications are transposable
for the civil applications. Indeed drones have played key roles in a variety of civilian fields.
The civil sector asks very obligatorily much of diligence, sometimes for several interventions
the presence of the human being is not essential or even it may be risked. In fact micro-drones
enable us to obtain a birds eye view of the environment which is helpful in many applications
such as environmental monitoring, surveillance or disaster management. We found also the
commercial market which has gained much attention (Collaborative Microdrones:
Applications and Research Challenges, 2008).
1http://phys.org/news
2http://www.nytimes.com
8

Emergency Management
Drones

Emeny HEDHLY
.
These are some of the missions that can be used in this domain:

o Farming
The agriculture industry has grown and is seeking advanced ways to control and
monitor crops. Using drones in agriculture initially started back in the early 1980s (Matovu,
Svolka, & Henckel, 2014)for crop dusting. Since then drones have proliferated in applications
of aerial photography to imaging of crop fields to assist with crop production management.
With the rapid development of low-cost open-source drones and advances in camera
technology, researchers have proposed systems for monitoring crop development by taking
pictures and planning agricultural activities using drones that can be controlled beyond visual
range using a standard web application.
o Deforestation Surveillance
In such situations, airborne cameras and sensors are valuable sources of information
helping to build an overview of the environment and to assess the current situation because
sometimes we seem obliged to do that such is the example of deforestation and its impact on
the environment. In fact deforestation may arise global climate changes. We know that
Tropical forests play a critical role in the global carbon cycle.
In fact the exchange of carbon between the atmosphere and biosphere is an important
factor in controlling global warming and climate change 3. Consequently we seem to be faced
with the obligation of improving forest monitoring especially in tropical countries. According
to (Yadvinder Malhi, 2008)the zone of highest drought risk (southeast and east) is also the
zone of most active deforestation. Amazonian forests have a substantial influence on regional
and global climates. Hence, their removal by deforestation can itself be a driver of climate
change and a positive feedback on externally forced climate change. Add to that moderate and
localized deforestation may locally enhance convection and rainfall. Therefore many
researches highlighted the importance of the use of drones to survey the environment and
more precisely deforestation since it is becoming a serious issue today accompanied by
Global Warming. For all these reasons, in (Jaime Paneque-Glvez, 2014) forest monitoring in
tropical countries was improved. In order to develop more effective approaches, the feasibility
3 http://www.cabdirect.org
9

Emergency Management
Drones

Emeny HEDHLY
.
of using small, low cost drones (remotely controlled aerial vehicles) was assessed; and thats
because small drones typically fly below cloud level (e.g.50100 m), which gives them a
significant advantage over conventional remote sensing platforms, particularly in habitats
with frequent dense cloud cover such as lowland rainforests and montane tropical cloud
forests. Data provided with small drones could greatly improve digital imagery and benefit
forest agencies. Also, the possibility of producing very accurate 3D forest models with small
drones would assist in the retrieval of forest structural parameters such as height, basal area,
and tree density.
o Map maintenance
Drones are needed to import a satellite map of your choice 4.The strength of drone is its ability
to consider the time dependent changes in traffic flow in an area wide region resulting from
different transportation policies. Drone integrates the output from a traffic simulation model.
Drone is further linked with geographical information systems (GIS)5.
o Post disaster/ disaster assessment
A disaster situation requires immediate response of a rescue team. Lag of information
at the beginning of the rescue mission can lead to serious consequences. Ground observations
by rescuers might not be possible in a complex terrain. Usage of a helicopter could be
unfeasible due to high expenses or other reasons. Thats why drones have been proven to be
very suitable tools to get quick overview about the situation. This technology seems to expand
the scope of disaster assessments by enabling emergency response teams to collect and
disseminate information at a faster rate. Drones were expected to enhance the way emergency
response teams operate during disastrous situations. Systematic process approaches were
developed for using these systems in those facts (Vera Mersheeva, Continuous Monitoring
Problem for Disaster Management).
o Power outages

4 http://www.service-drone.com
5 http://www.service-drone.com

10

Emergency Management
Drones

Emeny HEDHLY
.
The electricity network is one of the most important infrastructures in modern
industrialized societies. In case of natural disasters (e.g. gale-force winds, flooding, and strong
snowfall) the power lines and other means of supply can be cut for large areas in a very short
time. This can have fatal consequences for business as well as private households and can
even be hazardous for human beings. So to fast restore the supply with electricity, water, gas
and telecommunication after the emergency, the providing companies and government need
precise information about the location and the type of the damage. Drones were supposed to
be a suitable system in to meet these needs (Hans-Peter Thamm, 2013).
o Situational awareness of a disaster
In a disaster response, incident commanders must function to effectively coordinate
personnel and resources, often with delayed and inaccurate information on the hazards and
evolving conditions at the scene. Therefore, real time situational awareness is critical to the
central commander since a delay in the received information could have catastrophic
outcomes. In such situation ground video surveillance is limited for many reasons: first of all
its field of view is limited and not responsive to emerging events, then many ground cameras
are needed to provide images of the entire scene, finally it requires manual installation by the
already overburdened responders. Coordinated autonomous drones address these problems by
rapidly providing simultaneous views of the scene at different resolutions using fewer
cameras. They also have the ability to traverse into sites that are unreachable or too dangerous
for first responders.
o Search and Rescue
An injured victim of an automobile accident in Saskatchewan, Canada, in May 2013
may have been the first person to have his life saved by a search and rescue drone 6. When
Royal Canadian Mounted Police responded to a late-night rollover in a remote location, they
found that the disoriented driver had wandered off. A ground search and an air ambulance
helicopter with night-vision gear failed to find him. But after a cell phone call from the
injured victim gave a hint to his whereabouts, a Dragan Flyer X4-ES drone with heat-sensing
equipment, launched by the Mounties, found the victim before a potentially fatal night
outdoors in subfreezing temperatures.

6http://news.nationalgeographic.com
11

Emergency Management
Drones

Emeny HEDHLY
.

2.3.Emergency missions of drones


o Blood transportation
Seen the difficulties of delays and high costs in the current practice of transporting
blood and organs between medical centers and hospitals by ambulance which often during
peak traffic times a solution is needed to provide rapid response to remote, inaccessible and
war torn areas. The drone has just solved this problem allowing fast and safe transportation of
supplies over large distances, difficult terrain or dangerous environments without danger to
personnel (King).
o Cardiac emergency
Receiving treatment quickly is very important when in case of heart attacks. In order
to reduce emergency response times to cardiac arrest incidents a prototype Drone was
conceived. It carries a defibrillator to the scene by establishing the location through the
phones signal and GPS. In addition it can transport the necessary equipment to the victim and
provide instructions to those in a position to help the victim. It main advantage is its high
speed which increases the chance of survival following a cardiac arrest.

Figure 1 : Ambulance Drone

3. Advantages of drones
What are the strengths of drones? We present below some characteristics that put the
drone the best way in some missions7:
Usability and embedded intelligence:
7 http://geotribu.net
12

Emergency Management
Drones

Emeny HEDHLY
.
Most drones are autonomous and intelligent to the point that it takes very little
knowledge to use them. They take off, fly, land and take images alone. A grip of
fifteen minutes is enough to take off and set the flight plan. It does not however
replace the experience and the training so that all the flights go well.
Quickness:
Deployment time of a drone is measured in minutes. Images or other products can be
in the hands of the user from the landing of the drone.
Safety:
All sensors and drone status are constantly monitored, and dozens of possible errors
are handled intelligently.
Low cost:
The price of drones is considerably less important than that of the traditional planes.

4. Disadvantages of drones
In spite of their numerous advantages and their diverse contributions in the human life,
drones possess some inconveniences. The main disadvantages of using drones for civil
purposes are their limited remote control range and their limited maximum weight of payload
(Ilaria Dalmasso, 2012 ). As a result, the weight limit should be always respected for allowing
the flight. Moreover there are some issues related to safety, security, air traffic, regulatory, and
socio-economic impediments.

5. Emerging of mobile applications for health care


Up to the present time, telecommunication technologies have been playing a major
role in the development of systems across all fields, which facilitate tasks in all aspects of life,
and had a huge effect on the daily life activities. In the light of these growing technologies,
there are huge improvement of health care.
Hence wireless telemedicine (or m-health) is now believed to be an important and
emerging area in telemedical and telecare systems. Furthermore m-health embraces the
exploitation of the mobile telecommunication and multimedia technologies and their
integration into new mobile health care delivery systems (Lacal, 2003). For instance,
nowadays mobile phone usage explosion can potentially improve health care services on a
massive scale. Besides, the medical staff is called to respond to emergency demands that are
speedily increasing every time. However, it is possible that the doctor is not around, which

13

Emergency Management
Drones

Emeny HEDHLY
.
will obviously have a negative impact on emergency management. In this context, pervasive
healthcare systems present the solution of all these problems.
Add to that emergency management requires precise and reliable information about
the current situation of emergency, spatial sources and facilities. Considering the urgent
and time sensitive nature of emergency situations, it is necessary to collect and use spatial
information of the current state of the emergency within the minimum waste of time. For that
many researchers showed the improvement of emergency management by developing Mobile
GIS.

6. Conclusion
Many scientific researchers had conceived different prototypes of drones aiming to
realize a variety of missions. At this section, we have seen that drones can be used for various
tasks ranging from traditional mapping to emergency rescue. Nowadays drones utility is
foremost linked to the development of new technologies in mobile health care (mHealth).Design

14

Emergency Management
Drones

Emeny HEDHLY
.

15

Emergency Management
Drones

Emeny HEDHLY
.

Chapter III
Modeling Diagrams

His chapter introduces the UML diagrams of our project, which is designed to provide a
standard way to visualize the design of a system.

Use case diagram


1.1. Global use case diagram
Use case diagram is usually used to describe a set of actions (use cases) that some

systems should or can perform in collaboration with one or more external users of the system
(actors). Each use case should provide some observable and valuable result to the actors of the
system.
We have generalized the system whose global use case is presented as follows:

16

Emergency Management
Drones

Emeny HEDHLY
.

Manage Drones

Pilot

<<System>>
Drone

Pilot Drone

Treat Emergency Request

Emergency Agent

Manage the inventory

Doctor

Cover Emergency Request

User

Benefit from the Emergency Service

Figure 2 : Global Use Case Diagram

1.2. Refined use case diagram


In what follows, we will refine the use cases of the above mentioned diagram; then we will
describe them textually through tables.

17

Emergency Management
Drones

Emeny HEDHLY
.

Add drone

<<System>>
Drone
<<include>>

<<include>>

Show drone details


Pilot

<<include>>

Delete drone

<<include>>

Authentification

Show all drones

Figure 3: Refinement of the use case "Manage drones"

Actor

Pilot

Pre-condition

Request of the emergency agent

Post-condition

Authenticated pilot
Management operation performed
1.
1.
2.
4.
5.

Scenario

He may click on the button Add Drone


He may click on the button Show all drones
He can select one item to show its details
If he wants to delete it he clicks on the button delete
He confirms by clicking again on delete

Authentication error: The system displays a message


Username field or/and password field is empty: The system
displays a message
Cancel delete: The pilot can cancel the deletion
Table 1: Textual description of the use case "Manage Drone"

18

Emergency Management
Drones

Emeny HEDHLY
.

Parametrize theft
<<System>>
Drone
<<include>>
Check status of the drone

Pilot

<<include>>

<<include>>

Send return order


Authentification

Figure 4: Refinement of the use case "Pilot Drone"

The following tables describe the use cases of the pilot:

Actor

Pilot

Pre-condition

Request of the emergency agent

Post-condition

Drone sent
1. He parameterizes the theft
2. He configures the drone
3. He pilots the drone
4. He checks the drone state
5. He spreads the data of navigation
6. He sends the return order to the drone

Scenario

Authentication error: The system displays a message


Username field or/and password field is empty: The system
displays a message
Table 2: Textual description of the use case Pilot Drone

19

Emergency Management
Drones

Emeny HEDHLY
.

<<include>>
Treat Emergency Request
<<include>>
Emergency Agent

Authentification

LoadMap

Figure 5: Refinement of the use case "Treat Emergency Request"

As for this table it describes the use cases of the emergency agent:
Actor

Emergency Agent

Pre-condition

The reception of a patient request

Post-condition

Authenticated emergency agent


Emergency operation covered
1. He receive patient request
3. He loads a Google map
2. He sends notification of a pending request

Scenario

lack of products: He sends an apology to the patient


Authentification error: a message will be displayed
Table 3: Textual Description of the use case "Treat Emergency Request"

20

Emergency Management
Drones

Emeny HEDHLY
.

Add product( equipments, blood,


organ)

<<include>>
<<include>>
<<include>>

Show product details


Medical Staff

Authentification
<<include>>
Delete product

Show all products

Figure 6: Refinement of the use case "Manage Inventory"

Actor

Medical Staff

Pre-condition

The existent of an emergency

Post-condition

Product sent
1. He checks the notification of a pending request
2. He loads the product
4. He establishes a conversation

Scenario

Table 4: Textual Description of the use case "Manage Inventory"

21

Emergency Management
Drones

Emeny HEDHLY
.

Send drone request


User

Use products

Medical Staff

Patient

Companion

Communicate with the Emergency


Staff

Figure 7: Refinement of the use case "Benefit from the Emergency Service"

This table describes the use cases of the user:


Actor

User

Pre-condition

The existence of an emergency

Post-condition

Request sent
1. He sends a request of drones
2. He uses the product

Scenario

Table 5: Textual Description of the use case "Benefit From The Emergency Service"

7. Transition State Diagram


This diagram describes the internal behavior of an object by using a final state
automaton. They present the possible sequences of states and actions that a class instance (the
22

Emergency Management
Drones

Emeny HEDHLY
.
drone) can handle during its life cycle in response to discrete events in this case emergency
operation.
In Rest

Enter position

Busy

Back to stating point

Transporting the product

Occupied

On Hold
Mission over

Figure 8 : Transition State Diagram (cardiac arrest)

8.

Activity Diagram
This diagram describes the functioning of the drone starting from the call reception

until going back to the starting point passing by the emergency scene in this case cardiac a

Figure 9 : Activity Diagram

9. Class Diagram
The class diagram shows the internal structure of the system. This is a static view
because we do not consider the time factor in the behavior of the system. The Entity class
diagram shows the various entities of our system, their attributes and the relationships
between them.
23

Emergency Management
Drones

Emeny HEDHLY
.

Emergency Agent

Product

EmenrgencyAgent_ID()
EmenrgencyAgent_Name()
1

SendNotifications()
LoadMap()
1..n

1..n

Product_ID()
Product_Type()
Product_Qty()

1..n 1..n

1..n
User
User_Name()
User_Location()

1..n
Pilot

SendRequest()

1..n

1..n

Pilot_ID()
Pilot_Name()
ConfigureDrone() 1..n
FlyingDrone()
1
SendReturnOrder()

1..n
Doctor

1..n
Drone

1..n
1..n

Drone_ID()
Drone_Desc()

Doctor_ID()
Doctor_Name()

1..n

CheckNotifications()
LoadDrone()
ManageStock()

Figure 10: Class Diagram

5.

Sequence Diagram

Before accessing the various features of the drone, the user through his application
must send a request, the emergency agent checks the nearest drone to the rescuer. Then he
sends a notification to the doctor and to the pilot. The doctor will be charged by loading the
equipment in the drone and the pilot occupied by piloting and controlling the drone until it
arrives at its destination and makes its way back to the starting point.

24

Emergency Management
Drones

Emeny HEDHLY
.

Drone
: User
: Emergency Agent

: Doctor

: Pilot

1.Send drone request(location, name)


2.LoadMap( )

3.Send notification( )

4.Send notification( )

5.Load products (equipments, blood, organ)

6.Configure ( )
7.Pilot ( )
8.Transport resources(equipments,blood, organ, staff)
9.Open the chest containing equipments( )
10.Com municate( )

11.Use equipm ents( )

12.Send return order( )

13.Return to starting point( )

Figure 11: Sequence Diagram

6.

Deployment Diagram

A deployment diagram would show what hardware components (e.g., a web server, an
application server, and a database server), what software components run on each node (e.g., web
application, database), and how the different pieces are connected.

25

Emergency Management
Drones

Emeny HEDHLY
.

<<System>>
EMD Smartphone

<<Client>>
Rescuer Smartphone
<<Application>>

<<Application>>
Emergency Managment Drones

EMD_Rescuer.java
EMD_Rescuer.xml
<<TCP/IP>>

EMD.java
EMD.xml

RescuerCenterLink
JSON

JSON
<<Database>>
MySQL
PHP

Figure 12: Deployment Diagram

7.

Conclusion

In the above we described our system through some UML diagrams. We conceived
first a global use case diagram. Then we have refined it. After that, we designed the transition
state diagram, activity diagram, the class diagram, the sequence diagram, and the deployment
diagram. We will show in the next chapter the functioning of our proposed application starting
from the described modeling.

26

Emergency Management
Drones

Emeny HEDHLY
.

Chapter IV
Implementation

1.

Introduction

This chapter is devoted to the presentation of our proposed mobile application which is
destined to manage emergency operations by drones, ranging from the patient request to the
return of the drone once the mission is over. Firstly, we will present the tools that we used for
this application. Secondly, we will offer an algorithm summarizing the Functioning of the
emergency agency. Then, we will present some tests and screen shots in order to itemize the
process of our mobile application. Finally we will conclude our work.
For this project we used:

Android Studio is an integrated development environment (IDE) for


developing on the Android platform.

Rational Rose is a set of UML modeling tools for software design.

WampServer is a Web development platform for operating locally


(without connecting to an external server) PHP scripts.

PHP is a server-side scripting language.


To rely the PHP code to the android code we have used JSON (JavaScript Object
Notation) which is a lightweight data-interchange format.

The data sent through PHP are saved into a MySQL database.

By using the software that we sited above, our work became easier and

better

and we did learn a lot of new tools like, how to load and manage a Google Map, how to use
SQLite and how to send data from a client to a server.
27

Emergency Management
Drones

Emeny HEDHLY
.

EMD_Algorithm

2.

Algorithm EMD
Repeat
(Waiting for a new emergency)
Listen event ( longitude, latitude, time, Emergency Type );

Until true;
Case Emergency Type
{
Case

Cardiac Problems: cardiac ( );

Case

Blood Transportation: blood ( );

Case

Organ Transportation: organ ( );

Cardiac Problems: cardiac ( )


{
Identify the supporter Drone using the nearest neighbor algorithm;
Identify the required Equipments;
Identify the needed Staff;
}

3.

Application architecture

Like it is depicted in the picture below, our proposed mobile application is composed
from two parts:

the rescuer part which allow him to send a drone request through Smartphone.

28

Emergency Management
Drones

Emeny HEDHLY
.
At this stage, the system will automatically capture the patient's address (longitude

and latitude)
the emergency center part which allow to the emergency team (doctor, agent, pilot,...)
to cover the patient needs in order to save his life.

The connection between the two parts is done through php and mysql. We used wamp as a server.

Figure 13: Application architecture

4.

Realization
4.1. EMD Rescuer Part

From his part the rescuer can demand a drone by clicking the button 'send cardiac
drone request'.

29

Emergency Management
Drones

Emeny HEDHLY
.

Figure 14: Send cardiac drone request

When connecting to the the server a message will be displayed as it is depicted in the
following screen:

30

Emergency Management
Drones

Emeny HEDHLY
.

Figure 15: Connecting to the server

Once the rescuer is connected to the server, his address will be sent to the
emergency center. As a result of the previous screen print this one is the following
screen which prints a confirmation message:

31

Emergency Management
Drones

Emeny HEDHLY
.

Figure 16: Sent Location

4.2. EMD Center part


The following screen prints shows the server part of our drones management system;
First, an authentication interface will be launched. Each member of the emergency
group has its own username and password enabling it to connect to the application. At this
level, an input control on the two text fields is performed thereby prohibiting the actor click
on the login button without filling both fields; like it is depicted below:

32

Emergency Management
Drones

Emeny HEDHLY
.

Figure 17 : Anthentication 1

33

Emergency Management
Drones

Emeny HEDHLY
.

Figure 18 : Authentication 2

34

Emergency Management
Drones

Emeny HEDHLY
.

Figure 19 : Authentication 3

This screen print will appear after the authentication of the emergency agent:
After receiving an emergency request from the user companion, the emergency agent
he will have an addresses list of occupied drones like it is depicted below.

35

Emergency Management
Drones

Emeny HEDHLY
.

Figure 20 : Pending emergency requests

36

Emergency Management
Drones

Emeny HEDHLY
.

Figure 21: Notification of a pending Emergency Request

This screen print will appear if the emergency agent clicks on 'show pending
emergency requests' button where he will be able to know the nearest drone to the
current emergency. It contains the red markers representing the different drones and a
blue marker representing the nearest one.

37

Emergency Management
Drones

Emeny HEDHLY
.

Figure 22: Pending request

38

Emergency Management
Drones

Emeny HEDHLY
.

Figure 23 : The nearest drone

39

Emergency Management
Drones

Emeny HEDHLY
.

Figure 24 : Drone management

When the pilot clicks on manage drone this screen print appears to him where he will
be able to add drones automatically by clicking on the buttons below also he can see
the list of drones available by clicking on the button show all drones:

40

Emergency Management
Drones

Emeny HEDHLY
.

Figure 25 : Add drone

If the pilot clicks on 'add blood transportation drone' a message will appear to notify
him that the drone has been successfully added and same for the other two buttons.

41

Emergency Management
Drones

Emeny HEDHLY
.

Figure 26 : Drone added

When the pilot clicks on the button SHOW ALL DRONES, the different drones will
be loaded in a list like it is depicted below.

42

Emergency Management
Drones

Emeny HEDHLY
.

Figure 27 : Drone list

If the pilot clicks on one item, the details of this item will be shown in another screen
as follows alsothe pilot has the opportunity either to confirm this operation or to
cancel it.

43

Emergency Management
Drones

Emeny HEDHLY
.

Figure 28 : Drone details

And finally, this one will appear after the authentication of the doctor where he will be
able to manage the medical stock:

44

Emergency Management
Drones

Emeny HEDHLY
.

Figure 29 : Medical Stock Management

At this stage the following screen print appears to the doctor where he will be able to
successively choose the type blood, the organ type and to add a defibrillator by
clicking on the above buttons also he can see the list of products available by clicking
on the button SHOW ALL PRODUCTS:

45

Emergency Management
Drones

Emeny HEDHLY
.

Figure 30: Add Product

If the pilot clicks on ADD A BLOODa message will appear to notify him that the
drone has been successfully added and same for the other two buttons.

46

Emergency Management
Drones

Emeny HEDHLY
.

Figure 31: Product Added

When the pilot clicks on the button SHOW ALL PRODUCTS, the different drones
will be loaded in a list like it is depicted below.

47

Emergency Management
Drones

Emeny HEDHLY
.

Figure 32: Product List

If the doctor clicks on one item, the details of this item will be shown in another
screen as follows also the pilot has the opportunity either to confirm this operation or
to cancel it.

48

Emergency Management
Drones

Emeny HEDHLY
.

Figure 33: Product Details

5.

Conclusion

In this chapter we presented our application interfaces with the explanation of the use of every
one and we also talked about the tools that we used to develop our project.

nclusion and future works

49

Emergency Management
Drones

Emeny HEDHLY
.

Chapter V
Conclusion and future works

Response times for ambulances, in both non-emergency and emergency response


situations are still the most critical challenge for ever. For that a wide range of methods has
been proposed to do this mission. In this work we have been motivated by using drones. In
fact, to meet this need we have presented a generic system of drones which is able to cover
three types of emergency operation types which are: cardiac arrest, blood and organ
transportation. Reaching the field of mobile technologies for health care had proposed a
mobile application aiming to manage emergency operations by simple Smartphone.
Research on these topics is able to be updated and related to the growing technological
development. At first, we aim in future works to implement GIS based intelligent emergency
response systems (GIERS) that facilitate quick emergency operations even in inaccessible
areas. Moreover we are highly interested in introducing a Cloud Computing concept in
electronic healthcare systems because it provides the facility to access to shared resources and
common infrastructure in a ubiquitous and pervasive manner, offering services on demand
over the network to perform operations that meet changing needs in electronic healthcare
application. Moreover this work leads to allow the coordination and the cooperation between
the different drones in case of complicated emergencies. By this way we allow drones to
communicate with other drones or with roadside units. We may use a vehicular
communication system DSRC/IEEE 1609.

50

Emergency Management
Drones

Bibliography
Collaborative Microdrones: Applications and Research Challenges. (2008, September 23 - 25).
Markus Quaritsch, Emil Stojanovski, Christian Bettstetter, Gerhard Friedrich, Hermann
Hellwagner, Bernhard Rinner, p. 1.
Bolkcom, C. (2004, December 7). Homeland Security: Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and Border
Surveillance. CRS Report for Congress, p. 4.
Elias, B. (2012 , September 10). Pilotless Drones: Background and Considiration for Congress
Regarding Unmanned Aircraft Operations in the National Airspace System. Congressional
Research Service, p. 1.
Hans-Peter Thamm, T. L. (2013, May ). Design of a Process Model for Unmanned Aerial Systems
(UAS) in Emergencies. ISCRAM Conference.
Ilaria Dalmasso, I. G. (2012 ). WiMAX networks for emergency management based on UAVs.
Satellite Telecommunications (ESTEL), 2012 IEEE First AESS European Conference, pp. 1-6.
Jaime Paneque-Glvez, M. K. (2014, June 24 ). Small Drones for Community-Based Forest
Monitoring: An Assessment of Their Feasibility and Potential in Tropical Areas. Forests Login
Register.
KENNETH R. STULTS, B. P.-C. (2015, March 24). Efi cacy of an automated external defibrillator in
the management of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest:validation of the diagnostic algorithm and
initial clinical experience in a rural environment. guest .
King, J. (n.d.). Drone Compatible Medical Transportation Pod, Design, Development and Testing.
jamesdysonaward.
Lacal, R. S. (2003, September). Emerging Mobile Communication Technologies for Health: Some
Imperative notes on m-health. IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology.
Matovu, M., Svolka, V., & Henckel, P. (2014, Janvier 03). AgriDrone - A Ubicomp Prototype for
Precision Farming. Kcho, p. 1.
Rysdyk, R. A. (2006, August 21-24). UAV Coordination for Autonomous Target Tracking. AIAA
Guidance, Navigation, and Control Conference and Exhibit., p. 1.
Vera Mersheeva, G. F. (n.d.). Continuous Monitoring Problem for Disaster Management. Lakeside
Labs.
Vera Mersheeva, G. F. (n.d.). Continuous Monitoring Problem for Disaster Management. lakeside
labs.
Yadvinder Malhi, J. T. (2008, February 20). Climate Change, Deforestation, and the Fate of the
Amazon. Science AAAS, p. 170.
1

You might also like